Guards are tagged for PvP combat and automatically attack players of the enemy faction on sight, regardless of whether PvP is enabled on the player. They also attack hostile creatures that come nearby.

Attacking a guard (as with any enemy NPC) automatically tags a player for PvP combat. The Territory is under attack! message will appear in the enemy's LocalDefense chat box.

Getting close to an NPC in an opposing faction's town will often make them call out for help, which will spawn 1-3 guards immediately. The spawned guards' levels are often higher than that of the other normal guards that are there by default, especially true in Darkshire, Hammerfall, and Menethil Harbor as well as several other towns.[citation needed] The spawned guards disappear after some time.

Guards in all major cities and starting areas also serve as guides and offer directions to points of interest. The only exception to this is Dalaran, which has no normal guards; local wizards instead offer directions.

Note

In Patch 2.3, your pointer will change to look like a map when moving over a guard who will answer questions about the local city or town.

It is planned that guards will function differently depending on the type of server a player is on. For PvE servers, there will be no apparent change. On PvP servers, guards will be slightly weaker and respawn less frequently.[1]